Ten Weeks Later

Phineas’ recovery was remarkable after ten weeks. He then decided to go to New Hampshire to see his mother, and then returned back to Cavendish in the spring. Phineas is still able to speak, feed and dress himself, but he has trouble seeing out of his left eye and has a couple of scars, he is still not the same.

Dr. Harlow writes an article about Phineas’ case, and it was very appealing to a professor at Harvard, Henry J. Bigelow. He tells Dr. Harlow he wants more information and eyewitnesses that say this accident is really true.

After Phineas returns home in the spring he goes back to work. But he is different. He comes across as a mean, angry man that you can no longer rely on. He seems mad, he yells and acts very rude to people. So Phineas’ is fired from his job. Dr. Barlow observes and writes comments on how he behaves, but he does not share them with anyone, he is not allowed to unless Phineas gives him permission.

Fourteen Days Later

Fourteen days after Phineas’ experience with the iron rod, he began forming abscesses, a fever and he was no longer hungry. So Dr. Harlow continues to care as best as he could for Phineas and once again miraculously Phineas was okay and everything was healing normal. Dr. Harlow saved Phineas’ life. Phineas however was not staying in bed and was not listening to Dr. Harlow's orders so he gave him two prescriptions that were very strong and would help clean out his stomach and bowels, and basically forced Phineas to stay in bed, and that's when he finally did.

Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister

At the time of 1848 Louis Pasteur, a Frenchman was in the process of examining and researching fermentation, infection, and decay, which are all caused by “germs “as Pasteur called them.

Joseph Lister who was an English surgeon was motivated by Pasteur’s theory about “germs.” Lister wanted to conduct surgery only under conditions that were sterile or clean. He began boiling his medical instruments, and cleaning his hands and clothes thoroughly before performing surgery, because of this man’s sterile procedure before surgery, in 1868 deaths caused by infection were reduce significantly.

Even though this information is useful now, it was unfortunately, unavailable and was unknown at the time of Phineas Gage’s accident. So Phineas’ Doctor, Dr. Harlow did his best to keep Phineas’ cut clean and hidden.

How much did people really know in 1848?

Even though it was then that Englishman Robert Hooke came up with the basic unit of life, cells, and the first to examine single-celled organisms closely was Leeuwenhoek, a lot was still unknown about bacteria at the time.

In 1848 the word infection was never used by doctors. However they knew if someone had an infection or not. They referred to it as a “septic” wound. However doctors didn't really know much about gangrene, fungus, viruses, streptococci, staphylococci, doctors were not cautious of bacteria laying everywhere, on their medical instruments, on their hands, or even in the air.

An open cut allows bacteria inside it if not treated correctly. Once bacteria is inside the body the body's immune system fights it and the bacteria fights back by releasing chemicals that are toxic to the body, this war between bacteria and the immune system is known as an infection.

“Horrible Accident” in Vermont (Part 2)

Phineas Gage made his way into town after the accident without a problem; he was still surprisingly conscious, and continuing to talk to everyone about what had just happened about 30 min. ago. Can you just imagine walking by and seeing a man covered in blood with a hole through his head, but yet still alive and talking to people as if nothing was wrong? To me this is crazy and seems unreal!

At this time Dr. Edward Williams arrived at the hotel Phineas was waiting at. He asked the people around and the workers that assisted Phineas what had happened (since he figured Phineas was a little out of it considering how he looked) but Phineas demanded to tell the doctor himself. After Dr. Williams examined him Dr. John Martyn Harlow (the regular physician from that town) takes over. He helps Phineas inside and then begins to clean his wound. Dr. Harlow does the best he can to wrap and clean off Phineas’ head wound, and he realizes Phineas’ arms are burnt, so he begins to wrap them as well. The doctor is surprised that Phineas is alive and survived this open brain injury. Phineas should have died instantly, but didn't. Phineas should have died from all the blood he lost, but didn't. Phineas should have died from his brain swelling, but didn't. How is this all possible?! Can anything else go wrong?!

“Horrible Accident” in Vermont (Part 1)

The question lucky or unlucky is always asked when talking about Phineas Gage. On September 13, 1848 Phineas Gage’s life was turned upside down from that day on, and it will never be the same. Phineas was only 26 years old and worked as a railroad constructor in Cavendish, Vermont and at the time, this job was very strenuous and hardworking. There weren’t any machines to help out the human hands. Phineas had a special talent at the construction sites, he blasted! His job was to blast rock that was in the path of work. In order to do this, Phineas needed a tool called the “tamping iron.” This was used to position explosives. It was designed to have one end for pressing down on the powder and the other end was very sharp to set the fuse through the gun powder.

 Gunpowder is very sensitive when it is dry, it could go of at any moment, and it did! Phineas was getting set up as usual but the fuse is left exposed by accident and Phineas had got distracted and the fuse was set off! The tamping iron soars through the air and the Phineas fly’s backwards. The rod had passed right below his left cheek bone, going behind his left eye then in front of his brain. Surprisingly Phineas gets up and sits on a cart to be taken to the doctors and the whole time Phineas talks to everyone and is describing what just happened and why there was a hole in his head and blood was gushing down his face.

I chose to read the book, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. This book is about a man named Phineas Gage who was a construction worker on railroads, and one day he had a terrible accident with a metal rod that had passed straight through his brain. He surprisingly lived and now this accident has helped others understand how the brain functions exactly.